


The Better Claim

by crazygirlne



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Banter, F/M, Fluff, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 07:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10271735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazygirlne/pseuds/crazygirlne
Summary: Sara and Leonard are stuck at S.T.A.R. Labs for a few hours, and watching how Caitlin and Wells interact makes them face their feelings for each other.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClaudiaRain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaudiaRain/gifts).



> For @ficcingcaptaincanary prompt, “Sara and Len see a non-canon Legends of Flarrowverse pairing that makes them realize they’re in love.”
> 
> Set in Flash, but I can’t keep track of the mess of timelines there anymore, okay? Which one actually happened at this point? I love the show anyway, and I went with my favorite Team Flash composition. There are others around, like Iris, Joe, Wally, Jesse, who come and go as they do at times on the show, but in the lab daily are Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, and E-2 Harrison Wells.
> 
> As much as I hate getting rid of some of what happened in the episode, for the sake of this fic, Destiny didn’t happen.
> 
> Title is from “The Road not Taken” and a nod to Claudiarain’s [All the Difference](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8687476/chapters/19915780). Also! Happy Birthday to her! (when I wrote it, not when I'm posting)

Of all they places they could’ve been stranded, S.T.A.R. Labs isn’t the worst.

Sara appreciates that she and Leonard are surrounded by people who understand time travel, at least as much as anyone in this universe seems to.

The team is also happy, almost lighthearted despite what they’ve gone through, and she finds it as strange as she does appealing. The fact that she finds it appealing at all is a little strange in and of itself, though, and probably says something about how far she’s come from where she started.

Sara watches how Barry Allen and his team interact as they work through what they need in order to either get Sara and Leonard back to the Waverider or get the Waverider back to them. Barry and Cisco Ramon are obviously good friends, and they bicker as often as they agree, but without any real animosity. Harrison Wells isn’t quite a father figure; he’s exasperated much too often. The team listens to and respects him, though, for the most part. It’s his interactions with Caitlin, in particular, that keep drawing Sara’s attention.

It’s like he and Caitlin each know where the other is at all times. They move easily around each other, much like Sara and Leonard, and they’re able to follow incomplete thoughts. They complement each other well, better together than they would be apart.

Sara doesn’t take for granted how close she and Leonard are. While Mick’s still the one he refers to as “partner,” he works just as often and just as well with Sara. She always knows where Leonard is, and they usually end up standing near each other; it’s just easier that way since it lets them talk, and his personal bubble doesn’t seem to apply to Sara, so if he has to be near someone, she’s the logical choice.

She doesn’t really see that type of thing with anyone else on the Waverider, so it’s nice watching how Caitlin and Wells interact. It’s familiar and comfortable, and it makes her grateful she’s stuck here with Leonard rather than with anyone else on the team.

“So, what’ve we got?” Sara asks Caitlin, who smiles absently at her before launching into an explanation.

Most of the specifics go over her head, but she gets the gist. They’re trying to monitor readings of the timeline to figure out when the next visit from the Waverider is.

“So Cisco’s going to check these high points next,” Caitlin says, “and we’ll go from there.” Caitlin gestures at the readout while speaking, and Sara catches sight of a diamond ring she hadn’t previously noticed.

“You’re engaged?” she asks. Caitlin seems to have done her part for right now, and Sara doesn’t have anything to contribute, not to this, so changing the subject seems safe enough.

Caitlin blinks before smiling and looking down at the ring on her left hand. “Yes. It’s new, but I keep forgetting not everybody knows.”

“Who are you marrying?” Sara hasn’t seen her interact romantically with anybody, but then, she’s not here as often as she’d like to be.

“Harry, of course.”

“Wells?” It’s like her brain shorts out for a solid minute. She knew Caitlin and Wells worked well together, but she thought they were like her and Leonard. That ends up being all she can manage to articulate to explain her surprise, which seems to have caught Caitlin off guard. “I knew you were close, but I thought you were just, I don’t know, friends or partners or whatever, like me and Leonard are.”

Caitlin raises her eyebrows. “You and Leonard are together though, right?” She clearly reads the look on Sara’s face for the negative it is, and she continues. “I’ve seen the way you look at each other. That is _love,_ not friendship or partnership or whatever you want to pretend it is.”

Love? No, what she feels for Leonard can’t be love, can it? It’s trust and admiration and, okay, there’s some affection in there, too, and maybe more than a hint of attraction, but…

“It’s complicated, alright?” Sara says.

Caitlin smiles wryly at Sara. “I get complicated.” Her eyes are pulled to Wells, and her smile softens. “The first version of him was my boss. Oh, and he also tried to do everything in his power to bring down the whole team. Then Harry showed up, looking just like him, and with that same voice, that easy confidence that covers his admittedly few insecurities. We still worked together, and his home was on an entirely different reality.”

She focuses back on Sara. “It was complicated. It still is, sometimes, but honestly? Even if we had to deal with a lot more trying to keep us apart, it would be worth it.”

“But we can’t…” Sara feels her eyes drawn to Leonard. His arms are crossed as he tries to look annoyed at something Barry’s saying, but she recognizes that twitch in his lips, and as he looks her way, their eyes meet across the room, and his expression softens.

He has this way of smiling without actually smiling, where his face relaxes and his eyes shine with something other than mirth. She supposes it’s more of a lack of scowl than an actual smile, but she sees it often enough that it’s habit for her to smile at him anytime it’s directed at her.

Which, she realizes, is more often than she’d thought.

She wrenches her gaze away, looking back at Caitlin, who’s watching her knowingly.

“You can’t what?” she prompts gently.

“I can’t think about him that way,” Sara says. “We have to work together. What if he doesn’t feel the same? What if he does and it affects our missions?”

“The way I see it,” Caitlin says, “you have two options: continue avoiding it as you have been, or admit your feelings and see what happens.” She’s quiet for a minute, letting Sara think. “For what it’s worth, I’ve seen the way you are with each other. I think you could still work as partners, just partners who know they’re in love. It doesn’t have to be a liability.”

Sara looks back at Leonard, who’s smirking at something Cisco’s showing him, and lets herself picture it, imagine herself and Leonard in love.

She’s surprised at how little she thinks would actually change.

***

Of all the places they could’ve been stranded, S.T.A.R. Labs is possibly the worst.

Leonard is surrounded by people who are determined to smile and make everyone else smile along with them, and they seem to have even dragged Sara into it.

At least Harrison isn’t unreasonably cheery. Leonard’s quick to notice, though, how much the other man relaxes around Snow.

It reminds him of himself and Sara. They’re caught in each other’s orbits, and it’s when they’re near each other that it feels like where he’s supposed to be.

He hates it, sometimes, how much she’s capable of affecting him, but he’s given up on fighting it. He can tell Harrison is at that point, too; he doesn’t try to hide it when he smiles at the younger woman.

Leonard glances at Sara and Caitlin, and when his eyes meet Sara’s, he feels the scowl fade from his face. Sara looks confused by whatever Caitlin is telling her, but she smiles anyway, that particular smile she seems to save for him.

He curses internally at how much he notices and cares. When she looks away, Leonard turns his attention back to where Barry and Cisco are bickering about the best way to proceed once they find the Waverider, while Harrison watches like he somehow can't believe what's happening even though he never expected anything else.

Maybe, like Leonard, he's just not sure how he came to surround himself with the type of people he used to avoid and now can't seem to live without.

“Look at this.” Cisco’s demand brings Leonard’s attention to the computer screen. “It’ll take about two hours to get a message through to the Waverider once we pinpoint its location. Your method, Harry, will take at least three days.”

“Only if it’s implemented with extreme incompetence, Ramon,” Harrison responds dryly, and Leonard smirks. “If we route the message through here,” he continues, pointing at the screen, “we can get the time down to ninety minutes.”

“Yeah,” Cisco answers, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “or it’ll get lost and jam up the time stream and they’ll just have to wait for the Waverider to show up in seven months.”

“Yeah,” Leonard drawls, “I vote we avoid getting stuck here, thanks.” The trio turns to blink at him like they’ve forgotten he’s there.

“We go with Cisco’s plan,” Barry announces. “Assuming you can make it another thirty minutes, Snart?” The man’s eyes are shining with ill-concealed mirth.

“I’ll survive.”

The women finally join them then, and Leonard angles himself toward Sara automatically, and Sara stops so close that when he shifts his weight, his knuckles just barely brush the back of her hand. He pretends not to hear her quick inhale at the contact, instead watching Snow approach Harrison.

When the woman takes Harrison’s hand in hers and squeezes it, he notices a very specific piece of jewelry, which is completely overshadowed by the way she gazes up at him and he smiles down at her.

They aren’t just in love; they’ve done something about it, and their world didn’t implode.

They let their hands drop before joining in on the discussion taking place, but Caitlin and Harrison move entirely in sync.

Leonard’s attention is pulled to the woman by his own side just as Sara looks up at him. She smiles at him again, _that_ smile, before her expression shifts. She looks like she’s seriously considering something, and he’s unable to look away. She shuffles half a step closer, and their hands brush again. He only just stops himself from reaching for her, and he imagines she’s leaning closer, or maybe she actually is, and—

“Get a room!”

At Cisco’s voice, they jump apart, and it takes Leonard a second to realize that Ramon was talking to Harrison and Caitlin, who are leaning against each other.

“Very well, Cisco,” Harrison says, tugging on Caitlin’s hand and leading her to a little room off the main part of the lab. Just before they close the door behind them, he sees the way they look at each other before sharing a kiss.

“Well, that backfired,” Cisco murmurs.

“What did you expect?” Barry asks. “They got their work done and you were asking them not to touch. They're getting _married._ ”

“We have an agreement, Barry,” Cisco retorts. “They don’t do the PDA where I can see, and I pretend Wells doesn’t have sex. Don’t mess with my system.”

“Says the man who kissed my sister,” Leonard says dryly, hiding a grin when the man jumps.

“Hey, she kissed me.”

The conversation devolves further before Snow and Wells return, but the message gets sent to the Waverider, and Leonard’s left with nothing to do but wait, wait and think about the woman by his side. Things would change so little if they let their relationship take that tiniest shift.

And yet, it would change absolutely everything.

***

Back aboard the Waverider a few hours later, Sara can’t shake Caitlin’s words, can’t forget the similarities between Caitlin and Harry’s relationship and Sara and Leonard’s.

Somehow, she’s not surprised when Leonard appears, leaning against her open doorway.

“Glad to be back on the Waverider?” he asks, tone sarcastic.

“It’s home,” she answers simply enough. “Besides, you can’t tell me you’d rather have stayed with Team Flash.”

He seems to take that as invitation to enter, and the door whooshes shut behind him. He leans against her bed, his face only a foot or so from hers.

“No,” he agrees. “That would have been a special kind of torture, being on Team Do-Good.”

“The Waverider’s not that much better,” she teases, and he looks down at his hands, where he's fiddling with a ring.

“Yes, but at least the crew is only annoying and not insufferable. Mostly.”

“Aww, was that a compliment?”

“Take it how you will.” He lifts his eyes to hers, and suddenly, all she can think about is one thing.

“Caitlin thinks we’re in love.” She means to say it almost mockingly, to feel out his reaction without committing herself to anything, but instead, it’s almost a question.

Leonard’s watching her intently, and she holds her breath, trying to figure out how to take back something she hasn’t even said, because there’s no way he’s going to react well, and—

“Maybe we are.”

Sara blinks. She can’t have heard him right.

“We’re…” She trails off. She can’t look away, but his stare is almost too much. She opens her mouth to speak again, even though she isn’t sure what she’s going to say, but her intentions are completely derailed when his eyes drop to her lips.

She has to swallow twice before she can force the words to escape. “Maybe you’re right.”

His eyes instantly dart back to hers, and Sara decides she can’t take this anymore. She leans forward and reaches out to pull him toward her at the same time, and when their lips meet, there’s no more maybe about it.

She is, and he is, too, and it all comes down to this, to his lips against hers, the feel of him against her as he joins her on the bed for better access. After a few minutes, they slow, and she relaxes against him, his arms around her.

“I’m glad Caitlin told me what she thought,” Sara says.

Leonard kisses her temple. “I spent hours today thinking that maybe Wells had the right idea.”

“They seem like they’re good together, Caitlin and Harry.” Sara turns her face toward Leonard, and he gets that cocky little grin that falls just shy of a smirk.

“Not as good as we’re going to be,” he says, closing the gap between them and effectively silencing any further comparison.

***

“You think they’ll make it?” Caitlin asks, curling into Harry’s side.

He tugs her close and kisses the top of her head. “I have every confidence that Sara and Leonard will get their act together, just as we did.”

“Maybe they’ll even be as good together as we are.” She looks up at him, eyes shining and a smile playing at her lips.

“Impossible,” he says, leaning down to capture her lips with his own.


End file.
